Food ! It’s an emotion . . .
Be it a bright sunny day, bursting with happiness or a dull gloomy day, with dark clouds above, whether its a festival, celebration or missing a loved one, the one thing I reach out for, irrespective of how I feel, is FOOD. An instant quick fix to all my moods, that helps me ease out and return back to myself.
It’s almost like we reach out for a bowl of comfort that let’s us cope with lows and also accelerates enjoying the highs. Food is emotionally satisfying, be it a home cooked meal made with love or the one that you just ordered in from your favorite restaurant.
We find a sense of security in eating food we are familiar with. “Maa ke haath ka” like we say, is a sentiment. I find myself salivating as I think of ‘khand pyo phulko’ which translates from Sindhi to sugar stuffed paratha. A heap of sugar placed in the middle of a thickly rolled paratha, smeared with ghee, brought together like a potli and rolled out evenly, then slammed on a piping hot tawa, as it begins to cook the sugar crystals on the inside begin to gradually melt and the ones on the surface in direct contact with the tawa begin to caramelize, these parathas are made crispy by slathering some more ghee and served straight from the tawa on to the plate. Best eaten all by itself, I would reach out for these on a monsoon evening or on a sick day.
Our food choices define us, while some of us relate to simple dal-chawal, some prefer a hot spicy biryani with chili chicken and a beer to go along with it. Others might grab an aglio-olio with a glass of wine. Often the food we pick, is something we instantly relate to.
Most of us individuals, on our best or better days, indulge for pleasure. We begin to think we deserve it, we must order that Japanese bento box and devour it or we think of that favorite ice-cream sundae that’s been on our minds ever since. We want to enjoy a meal, just because!
Moving on from savoring meals all by ourselves, when meeting a bunch of friends to unwind over some beer and DIY finger food platters, or winter evenings with barbeques, to bringing the family together for festivities, there’s joy in cooking traditional meals, sharing and eating together. It is almost always the center of all gatherings, food and how we bond over food, all across the world.
Bonding with any kind of food, really. Besides, being adventurous with food is something we have all taken to. We love experimenting and exploring new cuisines, or a fusion food menu with all the jazz from the culinary theatre of experiencing a form of molecular gastronomy in front of us, believing that we eat with our eyes first before we leave our taste buds to enjoy the party. That’s what food really means to me.
“There’s no sincere love than the love of food”
